Leadership Thought: The Value of a Handwritten Note from the Tootsie Pop Pastor

Dear Friend,

It arrived a few days ago. It was dressed up in a yellow envelope that bore the name Thank-U-Gram. I quickly opened it to discover a beautifully handwritten note from a friend of mine. 

Short and sweet, my friend has taken the time to thank and encourage me for the Leadership Thoughts I send out each day.

His letter once again reminded me of just how special handwritten notes can be.

Katie Bundra comments that " Writing notes shows how much you care. When you take the time to hand write and send a note in the mail, that person is assured that you have spent the time to think about them and show your appreciation for their efforts toward you. Essentially you are letting the recipient know that they are on your mind, that they are important, and that you care about their well-being." Quoted from an article from the internet.

Years ago, I spent considerable time writing handwritten notes of thanks and encouragement, but with the advent of  neuropathy, my fingers no longer express my thoughts in very legible form. 

I still laugh when I  accept the handwriting challenge and mail someone a handwritten note only to receive a call from its recipient thanking me for my letter but wondering what it was I had said!

My friend's handwritten Thank-U-Gram was all the encouragement I needed to pick up a pen and some paper and send a few handwritten words of encouragement to several of my friends.

Writing those notes took a little longer than the time it would take to bang out some words on a keyboard, and sending them as e-mails, but I suspect the extra time and effort it took me resulted in greater appreciation from their recipients.

Although handwritten notes are an almost forgotten art today, they still provide a powerful way to communicate love and appreciation, and they produce great joy in the hearts of those who receive them.

When I was coaching and teaching in South Florida, I sent handwritten notes to every student in our school on the day of their birthdays. Doing so took a good deal of time, for when I left the school there were over 1,000 students to write.

Each day I would prepare personal letters to be delivered to each student celebrating a birthday that day. I tried to make the letters as personal as possible. 

Ahead of time, I would secretly communicate with the student's teacher and ask the teacher to provide me with some specific accomplishment or achievement that student had performed, and then I would make reference to it in my  handwritten letter. 

On the student's birthday, I would walk into their classroom, interrupt all preceding activity, and present the student with his/her birthday letter, along with a Tootsie Pop. 

The student would be surprised at my personal knowledge of them. "How did you know I accomplished that," they would ask in amazement.

Yes, it sometimes would take as much as an hour a day to gather the different student's information', write the personal letters, and then deliver then to the student's classroom, but it was worth the effort to witness the student's appreciation as he or she read the birthday letter, wondering how I could have known his or her significant accomplishment. I would then communicate the student's specific action in front of his/her classmates.

To this day I am still known by many of the school's students as the Calvary Chapel Tootsie Pop pastor.

Personal handwritten notes still have power. They stand out. They represent effort, show deliberation, and communicate a kind of thoughtfulness that may not be communicated in a hastily typed out e-mail.

The impact of those student letters have endured long after I left the school.

To this day, I meet or hear from parents who  thank me and tell me they saved every one of those letters I wrote to their children.

The words, "I love you," "I appreciate you," "I believe in you" are wonderful words to read at any time. but especially so when they come in the form of a handwritten note that can be saved and savored in your heart, not hidden in some computer file.

So, grab a pen and some paper and start writing that letter today. You will be glad you took the time and effort, and so will your treasured friend.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom